Managing and troubleshooting computer system networks is a critical and essential task in most businesses, governmental entities, and educational institutions today. Several products have been developed to help assist the system administrator perform management and troubleshooting functions on computers and interconnect devices, such as routers, bridges, hubs, switches, etc., on the network. Some products are designed to help manage system configurations on a real time basis. Such products can tell the system administrator what the configurations of particular computers or devices are at the present moment. Some products may also enable the system administrator to make immediate changes to particular computers or devices or restore them to a previous state.
Other products can tell the system administrator what the current configuration of a computer or interconnect device is, but cannot tell the system administrator what the configuration was at a particular point in time in the past. Still other products may be able to tell the system administrator what the configuration was a week ago as compared to its current status, but cannot tell what the configuration was two weeks ago as compared to the configuration status of one week ago. Also, most products do not show the system administrator what has changed during the two time periods in question, but merely show the entire status of the computer or interconnect device at each time period. The system administrator must compare the two configurations to identify what has changed.
It is thus apparent that there is a need in the art for an improved method or apparatus which can provide system administrators management and troubleshooting functions that are not real time based. There is a need in the art for a method to identify what has changed within system configurations for computers or interconnect devices between two points in time in a quick and efficient manner and make those changes readily available to the system administrator for troubleshooting and managing purposes. The present invention meets these and other needs in the art.